During the last few years West Virginians have become acutely aware of
their visual history. WVPBS’ series West Virginia: A Film History was
broadcast in 1995.Hollywood
produced films such as October Sky, The Mothman Prophecies
and A Beautiful Mind showed West Virginians that their history
was interesting to people all over the world. In the last few years B.J.
Gudmundsson, working with the Pocahontas County Free Libraries system,
has shown that local filmmakers can make high-quality, low-cost
films about local history. Indeed, many filmmakers in the state, most
notably Robert Gates, who made his landmark film about stripmining, In
Memory of the Land and People, have been making 16 mm films about
the many dramatic events taking place now in the state. Daniel Boyd,
founder of WV State College’s Paradise Film Institute, has produced
three low-cost feature films using local people and starring local
actors, and has taught hundreds of college-aged students how to make
documentary and dramatic films right here. The following is a selection
of these films aimed at introducing people all over the state to their
own filmic history.

Program
1 – The first Hollywood-based film about West Virginia - Tol’able
David.

TOL’ABLE
DAVID

120
M.1921B&WSILENT
VHS/16MMM.O.M.A.

One
of the finest films of the silent era. Directed by Henry King. Filmed on
location in Appalachian Virginia - Bluegrass (Near Pocahontas County).
Explicit references to West Virginia including the “Hatburn Clan.”
Combines the Biblical tale of David with the family feud story. Starring
David Barthelmess of BROKEN BLOSSOMS fame.

Program
2 – The first Hollywood-based film made in West Virginia - Stagestruck.

STAGESTRUCK

90
M.1925VHS/16MM PARAMOUNT EASTMAN HOUSE

The
Ohio River Town of New Martinsville, WV is the setting for this classic
comedy starring Gloria Swanson and directed by one of the pioneers of
American Film, Allan Dwan. Swanson plays Jennie Hagen, a waitress in a
diner who is in love with the cook.The cook meets a showboat lady.The two ladies end up in a boxing match worthy of Buster Keaton!
Swanson was one of the leading ladies of the silent film era, her
masterpiece being QUEEN KELLY.

Program
3 – The first independent documentary feature –

West
Virginia, The Beautiful

WEST
VIRGINIA, THE BEAUTIFUL - 1929

76
M.1929B&WVHS SILENT
WV DIV. OF CULTURE & HISTORY

This
film was made by amateur filmmaker Rev. Ottis Snodgrass. The black and
white, silent film shot in 1929 takes the viewer on a journey along the
path of US Route 60, The Midland Trail, from the Kentucky border through
West Virginia and to the Virginia border. Important landmarks, from the
site of the State Capitol building destroyed by fire in 1921 and the
beginning phases of the new capitol to the Greenbrier and the view from
the overlook at what would become Hawks Nest State Park, are included in
this film. Everyday life along US Route 60 – the salt works, a
chemical plant, tourist camps, colleges, and various modes of
transportation – automobiles, passenger and logging trains, a ferry
and steamboat are brought to life.At the end of the film, Snodgrass provided the words to the state
song “The West Virginia Hills” for a sing-a-long.

Directed
by Bill Posner; producer and screenwriter Clark Davis. Filmed on
location in Huntington, WV. The following is part of a review by Mike
Weldon, editor of Psychotronic Video #7–Fall 1990: "I love obscure
early 60s regional movies like this!A mystery 'lipstick' killer is strangling schoolgirls with
stockings in the Huntington, West Virginia area (where this marvel was
filmed). Some of the characters are straight out of REBEL WITHOUT A
CAUSE, but with Southern accents. Jimmy, a member of the Fastbacks, a
pretty harmless 'gang' (they wear black jackets with bulldogs on the
backs) is a suspect.He
stands up for a guy everybody calls Runt, and has a girlfriend named
Betty Jean. His family had to relocate because of his police record. (He
had covered for his nervous little brother, Mickey, the real culprit.)
Jimmy even has a drag race with Curley, the gang’s tough guy. Kids do
the twist and drink pop at Marty’s where Betty Gay (not Betty Jean)
announces, 'Fellow citizens and lovers of good music – For those of
you that pledge allegiance to Peter, Paul and Mary...The Beatles...The
Teen Queens...Paul Anka, and The Chad Mitchell Trio...' and some guy
(who used to be in The Astronauts) sings 'Yipes Stripes.' Despite
Betty Gay’s horrifying list, the instrumental rock on the soundtrack
(by Danny Dean And The Daredevils) is fine..."

Program
5 – West Virginia’s greatest Hollywood film – The Night of the
Hunter.

THE
NIGHT
OF THE HUNTER

91
M.1955B&W 16MM/VHS

Filmed
partially in Moundsville, WV, Charles Laughton’s only film as a
director is considered a unique masterpiece of American cinema. A
psychopathic preacher goes on the trail of hidden money, the secret of
which is held by two children. A weird, manic fantasy in which evil
confronts the power of innocence. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters,
Lillian Gish.

Program
6 – Two Famous Documentaries on Destruction in West Virginia –

Buffalo
Creek and In Memory of the
Land and People.

BUFFALO
CREEK 1972: AN ACT OF GOD?

30
M.B&W16MM/VHSAPPALSHOP

Covers
the destruction and clean-up following the Buffalo Creek flood,
interviews with survivors, the people’s hearing, wildcat strikes in
Logan County mines, the demonstration of the Pittston Coal Company
stockholders meeting, and an interview with the president of Pittston.

IN
MEMORY OF THE LAND AND PEOPLE

50
M.1978OMNIFICENT SYSTEMS

This
documentary is an independent production by Robert Gates on the ravages
of stripmining. There is no script. No narrator. Music of Bartok is
interwoven with songs and dialogue of people who live in the stripped
regions.

Program
7 – Daniel Boyd’s last feature – Paradise Park.

PARADISE
PARK

100
M.1992VHSBIG PICTURE HOPE
VIDEO

An
elderly resident of an Appalachian trailer park wakes up one morning
with a vision that God will visit the park later that evening and grant
all the tenants a wish. The love-hate relationship this memorable group
of wonderful characters have with their impoverished existence surfaces,
in funny, often bittersweet ways as the effects of floods, unemployment
and family strife trigger fantasies of love, wealth, elaborate song and
dance numbers and dreams of what’s yet to be. Does God make it to the
trailer park?Well, one
thing’s for sure – Life will never be the same in Paradise Park.With original song by T. Graham Brown, Johnny Paycheck, Razzy
Bailey, LarryGroce, Webb
Pierce.Starring: Larry
Groce, Lina Basquette, Dusty Rhodes, Webb Pierce, Porter Wagner and
Johnny Paycheck.

Program
8 – Jacob Young’s West Virginia – Dancing Outlaw and Beyond.

DANCING
OUTLAW – & OUTTAKES—SPECIAL DIRECTOR’S EDITION

60
M.1993VHSWNPB-TV

Jesco
is famous everywhere. DANCING OUTLAW has become a cult classic. Includes
the original DIFFERENT DRUMMER SERIES of the DANCING OUTLAW plus
never before seen footage and outtakes of the best mountain dancer left
in these here parts.

HOLY
COW!SWAMI

180
M.1996WNPB-TV

Jacob
Young, famous for creating DANCING OUTLAW
and the award winning
PBS series DIFFERENT
DRUMMER SERIES, worked years on this three-part
documentary about the controversial Swami Bhaktipasda and the kingdom he
created at New Vrindaban, a Hare Krishna community near Moundsville, WV.
A cloud of legal troubles descended on the Swami and the Krishna
community, including allegations of murder and racketeering.

Program
9 Psychotronic West Virginia – Whispers
from Space and Communication
from Weber.

WHISPERS
FROM SPACE

105
M.1996FACETS

This
"engagingly deadpan" (Dennis Harvey, Variety)
documentary looks at UFO lore and one rather disreputable
"researcher" in particular: Gray Parker, a self-stylized
"expert" on strange phenomena, who not only didn't believe in
Unidentified Flying Objects, but may have perpetrated a UFO-related hoax
or two himself. Stills, home movies, location shooting and interviewees,
ranging from Parker's surviving relatives to a former male lover,
business associates, amateur sleuths and a local folklorist, offer their
insight into the man from rural West Virginia who specialized in the
flying saucer trade.

COMMUNICATION
FROM WEBER

15
M.1988OMNIPRODUCTIONS

Albert
Michael Weber came to WV with his Gauley Bridge bride who returned to
California. Ultimately, he died from a brain tumor. But during his few
years discovering the realities of life here – and his own fantastic
internal world, Weber created an amazing body of“art.” WV filmmaker, Robert Gates, and WV artist, Lyn
Wyatt, made a film about this amazing “Reichian” thinker.

Program
10 – New Films – The
Griffin and the Minor Canon and Ashes
to Glory.

THE
GRIFFIN AND THE MINOR CANON

41
M.2001WVPBS

Lucille
DuBerry and Brad Stalnaker animated Frank Stockton’s classic
children’s tale. They chose this story because Stockton lived his last
years in West Virginia. Using different types of animation –
rotoscoping, line-drawings, and computer animation – they tell the
tale of the last mythological griffin who is looking for a last meal. He
meets a “minor canon” (like a deacon) in a church with a stone
griffin on its roof. The town’s people are terrified that the griffin
will eat them. Eventually the griffin discovers that the minor canon is
a very good man, and lets him live. Using the voices of WV actors David
Selby, Chris Sarandon, John Corbett, Kathy Mattea, Ann Magnuson, Don
Knotts, and Soupy Sales. Winner of best animation at the WV Filmmakers
Film Festivaland “Best
of the Best” as best locally produced PBS program in the US 2002.

ASHES
TO GLORY

60
M.2000WVPBS

This
hour-long Emmy Award-winning documentary is an intimate look at the
greatest tragedy and the greatest triumph in American sports—the
Marshall University plane crash of 1970 and the miraculous comeback of
the team just one year later and eventual national championships.

NOTE:
These are just a few of the hundreds of films and videos that have been
produced by and about West Virginia. Appalshop, the official media arts
center for Appalachia, has produced many other award winning films about
West Virginia and its people. The many independent filmmakers in the
state have produced even more. WVPBS based filmmakers have made many
more films including the international award winning series, A DIFFERENT
DRUMMER – of which DANCING OUTLAW is just one. Russ Barbour, a
WVPBS filmmaker working in Charleston and Huntington, has produced a
feature documentary on West Virginians at War and many other films.
Witek & Novak, the people who produced ASHES TO GLORY, have
also produced two films about Blenko Glass. Hopefully your local public
library or other community center will be able to show these films and
encourage people to learn more about the many cinematic treasurers to be
found at WVLC, Pocahontas County Free Libraries, and other media
collections.

See Also:
Appalachian Film and Television Topics
Dr. Stephen D. Mooney, Instructor, Department of English and Appalachian
Studies Program, has compiled a list of film and television shows for
his Appalachian Studies Classes at Virginia Tech, VA.

Winning
Festival Films, background information on the first festival, local
history, links to sponsors, links to information on film such as The
Griffin and the Minor Canon, The Night of the Hunter, Invasion
of the Space Preachers, etc.

The
West Virginia Filmmakers Guild was created in 1985 to provide networking
and communication between West Virginia film and video makers and those
interested in these crafts in West Virginia. Central to its mission is
educating the public and promoting West Virginia filmmakers and their
films to the public.